I hope the watch update is big this year. If they cared to, they could put in a processor twice as fast as the one they’ve been stuck on since 2020. More power means more battery life, smarter complications with more frequent updates, more health and workout checks.
Word on the street is that the Watch 9 will get a new processor for the first time in several iterations, but the design will stay the same. Apparently there’s a big redesign coming for the Watch X next year.
Completely out of nowhere and they will never do it, but I’d like to see Apple make a color e-ink smartwatch. Always on and could easily get a week of battery life while being thinner/lighter. More with less frequent data refresh. Would need a frontlight for the dark though.
I’m mostly interested in how much lighter the 15 pros are with titantium rather than steel. My 14PM is a husky boy. Hell, I’d be happy with a plastic (or more likely, ceramic composite) back too. Glass is also heavy.
Perhaps Watch X will be my re-entry point, then.
Maybe Apple’s 1hz approach to always-on screens could be expanded. A device with reduced background activity, interactive in 1hz mode, should last at least a week.
Even if it was a secret ‘accessibility’ or low-power feature it’d be nice to have to turn on for a few days at a time.
Not really, you’d still need to hit each pixel on oled or a bunch of backlights on miniled. Refresh is only part of the equation. That’s why eink has such amazing battery, no backlight, slow refresh, and persistent images require zero energy to stay on screen forever.
14PM is still the same size as the 12PM right? I’ve been sticking it out with my 12PM but the 15 might be time to upgrade again.
Either identical or extremely close yes. They switched from rounded to flat sides in that gap somewhere.
Cool. Definitely will be looking at the 15. Pro Max is huge, but it’s hard to give up that big ass screen.
I’ve been resisting the big iPhone but I’m wondering if this is the year I give in.
May be time to replace the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Never held onto an iPhone this long. But then again, might not be time.
If it’s still fast, getting updates, and the battery holds up then no, only reason to upgrade is because you want one. That’s my excuse, I get a new one pretty much every year, selling the old one to finance it.
I use my phone more than pretty much any tech, it’s always in my pocket. One of those upgrades that while expensive, I’ll actually use.
I mean, hell, the Apple Store will install a fresh battery for a tiny fraction of the cost of a new phone.
Also true most definitely.
Had one years ago. Pebble Time. Damn shame Fitbit didn’t continue that Line when they bought them.
Yes, but you originally said a week of battery, right? :) I think a week of idle is doable with a powered display.
We know always-on display drains about 25% battery per day on wifi if the phone isn’t picked up. That’s four days at reduced brightness. Reducing background services probably buys another two days. And then advances in processing power should get us over the line and let more of the screen be brighter instead of just the clock.
E-ink could get you way beyond a week if you don’t pick up your phone, but it could hardly ever refresh. And active use would obviously have a lot of problems and wear out the lifetime refreshes quickly.
(Just spitballing, and hopefully the tech for both low frequency refreshes and e-ink advances.)
Sure, with a sufficiently large battery.
Slow refresh rates render eink inappropriate technology for the sort of interactive use you’d need on a phone, but for a primarily display device like a smartwatch, it makes a lot of sense.
But it turns out that most people are perfectly fine with charging their watch up every night like they do their phone, so why bother compromising display quality?
If there’s a market for eink watches, someone will make them, right?
We’ve accepted lots of stuff that’s annoying and sucks, because there was no choice. Charging devices every night is definitely one of those things.
It’s true that LED smartwatches beat eink ones, but is that because it’s inherently a better tech or simply that’s what Apple chose and nobody but Apple matters?
Sorry, I forgot we were talking about watches and not phones.
I’m not so sure that Apple Watch users want the screen to be that static. When mine isn’t active I often want to glance and see information that’s seconds old at most. What we learned from not-always-on watches is that it’s really hard to anticipate movement to glance with a screen activation, and e-ink refresh would be slower than an activation.
I think it would be sweet to have a stylish and programmable successor to the Pebble, though. Pebble was LCD (ePaper?) that acted a lot like e-ink. Imagine if someone could achieve the OLED look with the low refresh stored LCD technique.